Haikus: January 2010

HAIKUS: January 2010

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

These haikus were written as exercises in mindfulness—
an attempt to catch the fleeting moment in my daily walks,
while reading, listening to music, and pondering about life.
(Underlined words are not for emphasis but to web links.)
This web page best viewed with Times font size 14.

Friday, January 1, 2010, 10:36-10:45 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Tomasso Albinoni / Remo Giazotto
Adagio for Organ & Strings in G minor, (1945)
(Listen) (CD) (YouTube)

Albinoni's Adagio
makes my heart soar upward
on New Year's Day! Friday, January 1, 2010, 10:54-11:00 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Edvard Grieg
"Wedding day at Troldhaugen",
Op. 65, #6 (1896), Listen, CD, YouTube

New Year Day, Wedding Day—
Where is my bride?
Lady Wisdom, my guide!

Friday, January 1, 2010, 1:30-3:05 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at Safeway & Walgreens

Muesli, granola,
banana nut, yogurt,
ice cream and peanuts. Friday, January 1, 2010, 3:40-4:30 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me shopping
at Nob Hill Foods & 99 Ranch Market

Organic soy nuts,
tomatoes, tofu, bean curd,
dumplings, dragon fruit.

Friday, January 1, 2010, 6:00-8:30 pm
Home in Mountain View:
Cleaning apartment & laundry
two full loads wash & dry:
11 flannel shirts & 7 pants

Start the New Year clean
doing laundry— wash & dry
flannel shirts and pants. Friday, January 1, 2010, 10:41-10:48 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Gustavo Dudamel
conducts Ludwig van Beethoven,
Symphony #5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1808)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Great to start New Year
with Beethoven's Fifth—
wake up to Enlightenment!

Saturday, January 2, 2010, 10:14-10:23 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ludovico Einaudi
"Bella notte" (Beautiful Night) (2003)
CD, (Listen), YouTube— reminds me of
Michelangelo Antonioni's "La Notte (1961)

Lidia read love letter
Giovanni wrote her
before they got married. Saturday, January 2, 2010, 1:30-5:25 pm
Los Altos Library: Reading NY Times articles:
"Small Museum Captures a Rare Chagall";
"Joy of Physics Is in the Search Itself";
"How to Train the Aging Brain"

Grow more synaptic
pathways by opening your
mind to more ideas!

Saturday, January 2, 2010, 12:30 pm
Mountain View: Latham Street
Four grandiose palm trees
chopped down by Avalon Towers

Four heritage pine trees
chopped down on this street—
what an empty feeling! Sunday, January 3, 2010, 1:00-2:00 am
Home in Mountain View: Reading about
Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate (2008-2010),
Stanford 2010 Mohr Poet; Poem: "Patience"

Patience has harvest
in time's fullness— diamonds
in hardness and brilliance.

Sunday, January 3, 2010, 11:00-11:06 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Pascal Rogé plays
Erik Satie, Je Te Veux (I Want You) (1900)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Wanting Enlightenment
is a Big Mistake
wrote Zen Master Seung Sahn. Sunday, January 3, 2010, 1:36 pm
Stanford University, Green Library
KDFC Classical All-Stars 2010 Ballot
Zipoli's Elevazione listed at #82

Voted dozen times
to get Zipoli on list—
may it ascend higher!

Monday, January 4, 2010, 10:13-10:23 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Janine Jansen
plays Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (1806)
(Listen) (CD) (YouTube: David Oistrakh)

Waking up to Beethoven—
a treat for the soul
to be illumined. Monday, January 4, 2010, 11:12-11:41 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Sarah Chang
plays Felix Mendelssohn,
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)
Listen, CD, (YouTube: Movement 1, Movement 2)

Double treat— Mendelssohn's
Violin Concerto
behind Beethoven's.

Monday, January 4, 2010, 1:30-2:30 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at Milk Pail & Safeway

Radishes, ham, eggs,
Centrum multi-vitamins,
fish fillets and cheese. Monday, January 4, 2010, 5:00 pm-1:00 am
Stanford University, Green Library
Notes for poem: "The Mystery Dream"

First day of Winter Quarter—
Stanford Green Library
closing at 1 am.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 1:00-2:00 pm
Los Altos Library: Print out Notes
"Mystery Dream" & "What Is Belief";
Checked out Kay Ryan's poetry books

Elephant Rocks,
The Niagara River,
hold on Say Uncle. Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Workshop "Occasions for Poetry"
18 students in class with U.S. Poet Laureate

Kay tells her life story
and reads some amazing
poems to delight us.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's poem "After Zeno" written at 19
when her Father died just blew me away—

Where he was / I was /
But I still am / and he is still /...
There is no sense / in past tense. Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan passes her Waite Tarot deck and
"Ripley's Believe It or Not" to the class.

Ripley's Believe It or Not
and Tarot deck— random
picks to provoke writing.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan hands out Calvino's Chapter 1
of "Six Memos for the New Millenniium"

Read Calvino's "Lightness"
and bring in someone's poem
on "lightness" to share. Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan tells class she's flying to Key West
Florida to meet 89-year old Richard Wilbur.

Ah! Richard Wilbur's laundry poem
"Love Calls Us to the
Things of This World".

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 6:15-6:30 pm
Stanford University: Walked Kay Ryan from
Memorial Quad to Oval to Roth Way garage
& learning her life is sparse as her poems

Nice chat with Kay Ryan
finding that we both live
a sparse simple life. Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 8:00 pm
Stanford University, Green Library
KDFC Classical All-Stars 2010
Vote for top 3 favorite pieces

Zipoli: Elevazione
Albinoni: Adagio in G,
Massenet: Meditation from Thaïs.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 3:00-5:00 am
KSFO 560 AM: Coast-to-Coast AM
George Noory interviews Neil Slade
"Traveling with Wands" (Web site; Book of Wands)

A wand is tool for
travelling from one
universe to another. Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 3:00-5:00 am
KSFO 560 AM: Coast-to-Coast AM
George Noory interviews Neil Slade
"Traveling with Wands" (Web site; Book of Wands)

Van Gogh was a traveller
exploring with his brush
to unknown places.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 5:20 am
Home in Mountain View: Kay Ryan's Tarot cards
and Neil Slade's "Book of Wands" radio talk
inspired me to pick out "Three of Wands"

A man by the cliff
with three tall trees next to him
sees three ships sailing. Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 3:00-5:00 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,
Scheherazade, Op. 35 (1888)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Scheherazade wove
stories for 1001 nights
to save her life.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 1:24 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill College
Tree with sparse leaves near Parking Lot 4
reminds me of Calvino's "lightness" (Photo)

Tree of lightness with
sparse branches & leaves
lighter than clouds & lamplight. Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 1:40-5:40 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill Krause Center
Professor Jean-Pierre Dupuy emails me
Jules Delavigne's poem "Lourde légèreté"

Our days are filled with
small things— a snowflake
falling slowly in the air.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 7:00-9:00 pm
Stanford University, Building 200, Room 303
Atef Salem directs "A Struggle on the Nile" (1959)
starring Omar Sharif, Rushdi Abaza,,
Hind Rostam (YouTube: Hind dancing)

Belly dancer seduced
two cousins on the ship
as they sailed up the Nile. Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 10:00-11:55 pm
Home in Mountain View: Cooking clam chowder
soup with 8 vegetables, tofu, shrimp, dumplings
First time eating Dragon fruit (red pitaya)
Preparation & Eating, (Photos 1, 2)

Bought dragon fruit on
New Year's Day to try something
new— looks good, tastes bland.

Thursday, January 7, 2010, 11:06-11:12 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ludovico Einaudi
"Two Sunsets" (Due Tramonti) (2003)
CD, (Listen), YouTube

Music of two sunsets—
haunting melodies waking
me from dream sleep. Thursday, January 7, 2010, 2:00 pm
Mountain View, El Camino & Ortega Avenue
Walked to center of street to photograph
giant "Bird Cloud" not blocked by trees

Giant Bird Cloud flies
to "Ode to the West Wind"
as I follow in delight.

Thursday, January 7, 2010, 3:00-3:12 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Brought my 1361-pages copy of J.I. Rodale's
Synonym Finder & scanned pages 664-665
on "light' and "lightness" for poem (Photo)

Light— weightless, floaty,
feathery, airy, buoyant,
deft, supple, lithe, winged. Thursday, January 7, 2010, 3:15-6:15 pm
Stanford University, Building 260, Room 11
Professor Jean-Pierre Dupuy's seminar
"The Problem of Evil" (FreGen 265)
Took 20 pages Notes on Dupuy's 69 slides

Economist cover of Adam & Eve
with Apple's iPod— Is technology
a curse or will it redeem us?

Friday, January 8, 2010, 10:52-10:57 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Yundi Li
plays Frederic Chopin,
Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66, (1835), (Listen), CD, YouTube: Yundi Li

Refreshing to hear
Chopin turning keyboard
into a waterfall. Friday, January 8, 2010, 11:07-11:29 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Stephen Coombs
plays Alexander Glazunov
Piano Concerto #2 in B, Op. 100 (1917)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Rimsky-Korsakov said
of Glazunov "He makes
progress from hour to hour."

Friday, January 8, 2010, 7:30-9:30 pm
Friends' House, 957 Colorado Avenue, Palo Alto
Waverley Writers Monthly Poetry Reading—
Read poem "You Can't Catch Me" (Notes)

Showed them my Notes
writing this poem from
84 Joyce Carol Oates books Friday, January 8, 2010, 7:30-9:30 pm
Friends' House, 957 Colorado Avenue, Palo Alto
Waverley Writers Monthly Poetry Reading—
Robert Perry reads poem written at Book Fair

Allen Ginsberg wrestling
with Elizabeth Bishop
on style of poetry.

Saturday, January 9, 2010, 1:40-2:40 am
Home in Mountain View: Reading Kay Ryan's
assignment— Italo Calvino's "Lightness" (Ch. 1)
from "Six Memos for the New Millenniium"

Calvino is brilliant
citing literature passages
on theme of lightness. Saturday, January 9, 2010, 3:00-4:20 am
Home in Mountain View: Reading Dante's
"Commedia" on "lieve" (lightness) and
"allegrezza" (gladness) (Paradiso 27.7-9)

O joy! O gladness
words can never speak
when there is no more longing!

Saturday, January 9, 2010, 11:41-11:47 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Joshua Bell plays
Jules Massenet, Thaïs: Meditation (1894)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Massenet's Meditation
from Thaïs inspires me
to fly skyward. Saturday, January 9, 2010, 12:40-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hill, Foothill Krause Center
Revised poems on "Three of Wands",
"Lightness" & "Tree of Lightness"

Is this eucalyptus
parachute from heaven
or a hot-air balloon?

Saturday, January 9, 2010, 5:00 pm
Los Altos Hill, Foothill Krause Center
Reply to Jack's "Happy New Year" email
and tell him about classes at Stanford

Jack shows up at closing
to give me ride to the
Los Altos Library. Saturday, January 9, 2010, 5:05 pm
Los Altos Hill, Foothill Krause Center
Photograph of gray clouds at sunset
Orange cloud looks like a wolf.

Orange patch inside
gray clouds at sunset—
Is that a wolf on the prowl?

Sunday, January 10, 2010, 11:50-11:59 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Franz Joseph Haydn,
Symphony #101 in G major "The Clock" (1787)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Stroll in the garden
with sage teaching me to live
the timeless moment. Sunday, January 10, 2010, 2:00-3:15 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at Safeway (2580 California Street)
& CVS for gallon of milk ($1.69 with coupons)

Red Baron pizzas,
fish sticks, string cheese, cherries,
creamers and skim milk.

Sunday, January 10, 2010, 4:35-7:50 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Emailed Rudy on films and job opportunities
Richard sends email about car of the future

Car of the future
runs on hydrogen and
almost drives by itself. Sunday, January 10, 2010, 8:00-9:50 pm
Stanford Flicks at Memorial Auditorium
Steven Soderbergh directs "The Informant" (2009)
starring Matt Damon & Scott Bakula

Company insider tells
FBI of secret price
fixing in lysine.

Monday, January 11, 2010, 11:42-11:48 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Gabriela Montero plays Chopin,
Nocturne #8 in D-Flat, Op.27 #2 (1835)
(Listen), CD, (YouTube) Complete Nocturnes

Chopin's 8th Nocturne—
serene journey from night's sleep
to lightness of light. Monday, January 11, 2010, 12:49-12:52 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ambrosian Singers sing
Giacomo Puccini, Listen, (CD), YouTube,
"Madama Butterfly: Humming Chorus" (1904)

Suzuki and baby fall
asleep, but Butterfly
keeps her vigil.

Monday, January 11, 2010, 12:55-1:07 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Martha Argerich plays
Franz Liszt, Listen, (CD), YouTube,
"Hungarian Rhapsody #6 in G minor" (1847)

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody—
lively tunes for elves
to dance in the woods. Monday, January 11, 2010, 4:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Nancy's email with two images on lightness—
Photo of forest & drawing of child's head in cave

Sitting in silence—
contemplating cottonwood
forest full of light.

Monday, January 11, 2010, 4:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Nancy's email with two images on lightness—
Photo of forest & drawing of child's head in cave

Thousand years of darkness
in a cave dispelled
in an instant by light! Monday, January 11, 2010, 4:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Denise's email on Rilke's Orpheus II.14 on theme of lightness for Representatives

All things want to float—
let us keep the gift of
forever being children.

Monday, January 11, 2010, 4:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Denise's email on Elizabeth Gilbert's video,
(best-selling writer of "Eat, Pray, Love")
on Ruth Stone catching poems in the air (text)

Poems come like a train
thundering in the air—
catch it before it's gone! Monday, January 11, 2010, 4:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Valerie's email on Aimee Mullins's video
on how she was born without legs, and
became track star, fashion model & actress

With determination,
discipline, and dreams,
you can achieve it all.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 12:04-12:16 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Xue Fei Yang plays
Isaac Albeniz, Asturias, Op. 47 (1896)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Tempestuous flamenco
of Spanish romantic
dancing brought to life. Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Workshop "Occasions for Poetry"
Talked about 2010 Key West Literary Seminar

Maxine Kumin chanted
"Geography, Chronology, Furniture"
to root one's poems.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan discussed Calvino's "Lightness"
in Emily Dickinson's Poem 19 "A sepal, petal..."

Her mind is so quick—
flask of Dew, Bee or two—
a Breeze and I'm a Rose! Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's shared Stevie Smith's poem
"Longing for Death because of Feebleness"

Leave the flesh to be
a spirit, travel far
and acquiring merit.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Helena
shared Li-Young Lee's poem "From Blossoms"

From joy to joy, wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom
to impossible blossom. Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Natalie
shared Philip Larkin's poem "The Trees"

Last year is dead,
they seem to say, Begin
afresh, afresh, afresh.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Rachel shared
Wislawa Szymborska's "Theatre Impressions"

Curtain's fall is uplifting—
hand picks up a flower or sword
and one grabs me by the throat. Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 6:15 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan lends her book "Clearing the Sill
of the World" (2010) for me to read this week

How kind of Kay to lend
her "Key West Seminar"
book for me to read.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 12:01-12:14 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: James Galway plays
Gabriel Faure, (Listen), CD, YouTube
Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50 (1887)

Spanish court dance in
the garden with haunting
harmonic melodies. Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 2:00 pm
Mountain View, Kaiser Hospital
Retinal screening & eye exam—
Photo of my eyeball's capillaries

Photo of my eyes:
red capillaries flowing—
rivers of the world.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 2:30 pm
Mountain View, Kaiser Hospital (Photo)
Tropical fish tank in Pediatrics (Photo 2)

Tropical fish swim
in tank with bubbles—
a serene scene of lightness. Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 2:35 pm
Mountain View, Kaiser Hospital (Photo 3)
Leopard cactus pleco at bottom of tank

Leopard pleco fish
stays at tank's bottom
cleaning the debris.

Thursday, January 14, 2010, 1:39-1:42 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: George Frideric Handel,
Solomon: Arrival of Queen of Sheba (1748)
(Listen) CD, YouTube (I Kings, X.1-13)
(Number of the Beast, 666; Revelations, 13.18))

Sheba gave Solomon
666 pieces of gold—
sign of the Beast? Thursday, January 14, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 260, Room 11
Professor Jean-Pierre Dupuy's seminar
"The Problem of Evil"— Discussed Rousseau &
saw Peter Brook's film "Lord of the Flies" (1963)

Lord of the Flies is
Hebrew name of Beelzebub
sometimes called Satan.

Thursday, January 14, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 260, Room 11
Prof. Dupuy's seminar "The Problem of Evil"—
Discussed symbols in "Lord of the Flies" (1963)

Rules and order abandoned
as kids become savages—
"Kill, kill, kill!" Thursday, January 14, 2010, 6:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Valerie's email from LA with web link to
"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"

Lion, tiger, and bear
raised when they were cubs
have forged lifelong friendship.

Friday, January 15, 2010, 3:00-4:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference— Robert Pippin, University of Chicago,
“Fate and Film Noir: Some Filmic Philosophy
in "Out of the Past"” (1947) (YouTube: 1, 2)

Film noir of man spun
around by femme fatale
double-crossing him. Friday, January 15, 2010, 4:00-5:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference— George Wilson, USC, “Love and BS
in Santa Rosa: On the Coen Brothers' "The Man
Who Wasn't There"” (2001) (Trailer)

Ed Crane in electric chair
of circular cell
leaving on UFO?

Friday, January 15, 2010, 7:40-9:25 pm
Stanford Theatre: William Dieterle
directs "Love Letters" (1945)
starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten,
Ann Richards, Gladys Cooper (Trailer)

She has amnesia
not knowing the man she loves
wrote those love letters. Friday, January 15, 2010, 9:35-11:26 pm
Stanford Theatre, Powell & Pressburger
direct "Gone to Earth" (1950)
starring Jennifer Jones, David Farrar,
Cyril Cusack, Hugh Griffith, (YouTube)

Lush Shropshire countryside
reminds me of Housman's poem
"A Shropshire Lad".

Saturday, January 16, 2010, 1:00-1:30 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference: Pavle Levi, Stanford University,
“Film/Cinema: A Dialectical Couple” (Essay)

Optical, mechanical, chemical
science merged to make
the film-machine. Saturday, January 16, 2010, 1:30-2:45 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference— Karla Oeler, Emory University, “Cinema & Interiority: "Raging Bull"” (1980) (Trailer)

Jake LaMotta doesn't know
why he used boxing
to punish himself.

Saturday, January 16, 2010, 3:15-4:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference: Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Stanford Univ.,
“Evil and Self-Reference in Fritz Lang's
"Fury"” (1936) (Trailer)

Mob tries to kill man
who's innocent unleashing
fury for revenge. Saturday, January 16, 2010, 4:00-4:30 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference— Joshua Landy, Stanford University, “Still Life in a Narrative Age: Charlie Kaufmann's
"Adaptation"” (2002) (Trailer, YouTube: Kaufman)

Charlie Kaufman adapts
Susan Orlean's Orchid Thief
for a movie.

Saturday, January 16, 2010, 5:45-7:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference: David Thomson, film critic,
“If the cinema is the truth 24 times a second
(Jean-Luc Godard) how shall we tell lies?”

New York Times photo
of Haiti's dead tinged
in Avatar's Na'vi blue. Saturday, January 16, 2010, 5:45-7:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Film & Philosophy
Conference: David Thomson, film critic,
“If the cinema is the truth 24 times a second
(Jean-Luc Godard) how shall we tell lies?”

No set of rules for a good
film, novel, or poem—
The test: Does it work?

Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:38-10:42 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Henry Purcell
Abdelazar: "Moor's Revenge" Suite (1695)
Listen, CD, YouTube

English Country Dance
music "Hole in the Wall"
wakes me up this morning. Sunday, January 17, 2010, 12:00-12:11 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Felix Mendelssohn,
Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 "Fingal's Cave" (1833)
(Listen), CD, (YouTube)

Roaring waves around
Fingal's Cave stirred up
Mendelssohn to write this piece.

Sunday, January 17, 2010, 2:30-7:52 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Robert Pippin told me yesterday the film
clips he showed of femme fatale revenge

File on Thelman Jordan,
Angel Face, Dead Reckoning—
Film noir's femme fatale. Sunday, January 17, 2010, 8:00-9:32 pm
Stanford Flicks at Memorial Auditorium
Oren Peli directs "Paranormal Activity" (2007)
starring Katie Featherston & Micah Sloat

Video camera in
haunted house records
demonic presence at night.

Monday, January 18, 2010, 11:49-11:58 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Symphony #6 in B, Op.74 "Pathetique" (1893)
(Listen), CD, (YouTube: Karajan, 1st movement)

Swashbuckling tunes
for the Three Musketeers
to capture the castle. Monday, January 18, 2010, 2:00-3:10 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at Safeway (2580 California Street)
& CVS for gallon of milk ($1.49 with coupon)

Roma tomatoes,
salad dressing, granola bars,
orange juice, skim milk.

Monday, January 18, 2010, 5:15-5:40 pm
Palo Alto, El Camino Real & Galvez Street
Walked to Stanford Green Library
seeing scattered eucalyptus debris

Rainstorm has ceased—
eucalyptus bark, branches,
leaves and nuts scattered. Monday, January 18, 2010, 5:50-6:50 pm
Stanford University, Green Library
Found lotus flower for poem "Lotus"
as metaphor for enlightenment

Born in mud, grew in pond,
rose in air drinking sunlight—
lotus blossom.

Monday, January 18, 2010, 7:30-9:40 pm
Stanford Theatre: King Vidor directs
"Duel in the Sun" (1946) with Jennifer Jones,
Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish,
& Lionel Barrymore (Trailer, YouTube)

Duel in the sun between
brothers, lovers, man & horse,
ranchers and railroad. Monday, January 18, 2010, 9:50-11:20 pm
Stanford Theatre, William Dieterle
directs "Portrait of Jennie" (1948)
starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten,
Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, (YouTube: 1, 2)

Where I came from nobody
knows... where I'm going
everybody goes.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:00-5:00 am
Home in Mountain View: Reading poems
in "Clearing the Sill of the World" that
Kay Ryan lent me to read this week

Beautiful paintings
paired with poems make this
book delightful to read. Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 11:06-11:15 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Samuel Barber
Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (1936)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Adagio for Strings
often played at funerals
woke me up today.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan reads her poem "Stardust"
as example of Calvino's "lightness"

Stardust is like sugar grains—
hardest thing to behold
or to hold out for. Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan discussed Emily Dickinson's
Poem 632 "The Brain— is wider than the Sky—"

There's an Over-Brain
comparing the Brain to
the Sky, the Sea, and God.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Austen shared
Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "The Leaving"

Gathering peaches
putting them in water—
the stars moved right through her. Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Jeff shared
Malena Morling's poem "You Look Outside"

Evening has come—
In the river, cars drift
upside down with their lights on.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Catie shared
Jack Gilbert's poem "Maybe She Is Here"

She might be here secretly
with her right hand
a little visible. Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Nic shared
Mark Strand's poem "Keeping Things Whole"

In a field I am
the absence of field.
I move to keep things whole.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 12:04-12:16 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Johann Pachelbel,
Canon in D major (1680)
(Listen), CD, YouTube

Pachelbel's Canon
may have been composed for
Johann Christoph Bach's wedding. Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 6:30-8:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Formatted Top 100 Classical All-Stars 2010
from KDFC 102.1 FM Poll of listeners

Lightness in music—
Vivaldi's "Winter",
Pachelbel's Canon in D.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 9:30 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Mark Hurst email on Good Experience;
Creative Good, Customer Experience

Improve business by
improving the experience
of your customers. Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 10:00 pm-1:00 am
Stanford University, Green Library
Typed Ruth Stone's "Poems"
from "In the Next Galaxy" (2002)

Crow time, flycatcher time—
fractal meaningless babble
takes me away.

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 3:00-5:00 am
KSFO 560 AM: Coast-to-Coast AM
George Noory interviews Clint Arthur (Web site)
"Last Year of Your Life"; Book: Free New Power

If this is the last year
of your life— Focus on
what you wish to do. Thursday, January 21, 2010, 12:19-12:35 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Felix Mendelssohn
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27 (1828)
(Listen) (CD) (Goethe's poems, 1795)

Let a calm sea smooth
the waves and good winds
send my ship peacefully home.

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 260, Room 11
Prof. Dupuy's seminar "The Problem of Evil"—
Discussed Billy Budd & Vere's moral judgment

Goodness cannot speak—
Billy Budd sentenced to die—
crucified like Christ. Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6:30-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Virginia Jansen's email on Frederick H. Evans
"A Sea of Steps— Wells Cathedral's Stairs"

Wells Cathedral stairs
are undulating slowly
like a sea of steps.

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 10:20-11:32 pm
Stanford University, Green Library
Web page on Ruth Stone's "Poems"
with Edward Hirsch's commentary

Crow time & flycatcher time—
Ruth Stone's "Poems" trembles
with a holy air. Friday, January 22, 2010, 12:00-1:00 am
Stanford University, Green Library
Wrote poem "A Sea of Steps" inspired by
Frederick H. Evans's 1903 photograph

I walk on a sea
of steps floating on air
as I go up, up, up

Friday, January 22, 2010, 12:15-12:17 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Johannes Brahms
Hungarian Dances #10 in F major (1868)
(Listen), CD, YouTube, Patron treated Brahms to his best wine: "This is the Brahms of my wine cellar"

After one sip,
Brahms said to his host—
"Better bring out your Beethoven!" Friday, January 22, 2010, 1:00-2:30 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Liturgy Conference
Came to see Nils Peterson who was my roommate twice (1988-89) at Robert Bly's Asilomar Weekend and found Nils Petersen from Denmark instead

He's professor of church
history from Denmark,
not the poet I know.

Friday, January 22, 2010, 2:00-6:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Liturgy, the Senses,
and Crisis: Music, Art and Ritual Across Transformations, Middle Ages to Early Modern
Christian Troelsgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, "The Byzantine communion chants between monastic and cathedral practices"

Liturgy chanting
goes beyond words & music
to the transcendent. Friday, January 22, 2010, 2:00-6:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Liturgy, the Senses,
and Crisis: Music, Art and Ritual Across Transformations, Middle Ages to Early Modern
Bissera Pentcheva, Stanford University
"Icon of Sound: Hagia Sophia
and the Acoustics of the Sea"

Space in Hagia Sophia
lets chants reverberate
into heart and soul.

Friday, January 22, 2010, 2:00-6:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Liturgy, the Senses,
and Crisis: Music, Art and Ritual Across Transformations, Middle Ages to Early Modern
Nils Holger Petersen, Kobenhavns Universitet, Denmark, "The Eucharist, the Senses, Crisis of the Reformation: Reform Catholic Practices"

"Devotion of the Forty Hours"—
Catholic polemics
against the Protestants. Friday, January 22, 2010, 2:00-6:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center: Liturgy, the Senses,
and Crisis: Music, Art and Ritual Across Transformations, Middle Ages to Early Modern
Edward Muir, Northwestern University
"The Eye of the Procession:
Ritual Ways of Seeing in the Renaissance"

Procession is a street scene
where participants and
onlookers merge as one.

Friday, January 22, 2010, 7:30-9:30 pm
Stanford Theatre: William Wyler
directs "Carrie" (1952)
starring Jennifer Jones, Laurence Olivier,
Eddie Albert, Miriam Hopkins, (YouTube)

She rose to be an actress
while he was reduced
to destitution. Friday, January 22, 2010, 9:40-11:10 pm
Stanford Theatre, John Huston
directs "We Were Strangers" (1949)
starring Jennifer Jones, John Garfield,
Pedro Armendáriz, Gilbert Roland, (Trailer)

Cuban underground's
attempt to overthrow
the corrupt government.

Saturday, January 23, 2010, 12:45-12:51 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ophelie Gaillard plays
Gabriel Faure, (Listen), CD, YouTube
Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50 (1887)

Slow stroll in the park—
birds singing, roses blooming—
the first day of Spring. Saturday, January 23, 2010, 2:00-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill Krause Center
Wrote Haikus for Stanford Liturgy Conference
and Stanford Theatre Jennifer Jones movies

Web links to Friday's
Liturgy talks and films
added to my haikus.

Saturday, January 23, 2010, 5:00-5:30 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill College Bus Stop
Photographed clouds at sunset while
waiting for Bus #40 to arrive

Sunset clouds photos—
angry face, crocodile,
smoke from Aladdin's lamp. Saturday, January 23, 2010, 5:30-6:10 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill College Bus Stop
& Los Altos Library. Hitchhiked rides from Robert
to Library and Craig who gave me ride home.

Today's my lucky day—
two kind souls stopped
to pick up hitchhiker me.

Sunday, January 24, 2010, 11:47-11:53 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ludwig van Beethoven,
Symphony #3 in Eb, Op. 55 "Eroica" (1803)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Symphonic breakthrough
from his depth of despair
to new heroic heights! Sunday, January 24, 2010, 2:00-3:00 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at Milk Pail (2585 California St.)
and Safeway (2580 California Street)

Green onions, radishes,
cauliflower, strawberries,
red pepper, Swiss cheese.

Sunday, January 24, 2010, 4:40-7:50 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Format Friday's Foothill College
cloud photos for haikus on lightness

Clouds after sunset
seem like orange smoke
from Aladdin's magic lamp. Sunday, January 24, 2010, 8:00-9:40 pm
Stanford Flicks at Memorial Auditorium:
F. Gary Gray directs "Law Abiding Citizen" (2009)
with Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb

Even behind bars
he plans revenge to kill
those mocking at justice.

Monday, January 25, 2010, 12:03-12:15 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Alexander Borodin,
String Quartet #2 in D major (1881)
2nd movement, "Meno mosso"
("Kismet" 1955 film), (Listen), (CD), YouTube

"Baubles, Bangles and Beads"—
violin soars over
murmuring viola. Monday, January 25, 2010, 4:30 pm
Stanford University, 340 Bonair Siding
Answered 1/14 email from Sue-Ellen Atkinson
that my photo of Stanford Marguerite Shuttle
Hybrid-Powered Bus won 3rd prize of $50

Disqualified for prize
because I'm not student,
staff, or faculty.

Monday, January 25, 2010, 5:00-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
"Mini-Monet in the Making" (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)
7-year old British boy Kieron Williamson
paints like a master, works sold for $50,000

Young boy's watercolors
resemble Monet's landscapes
suffused with light. Monday, January 25, 2010, 5:00-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Typing poems in 28th Key West Literary Seminar
"Clearing the Sill of the World" book (2010) that
Kay Ryan lent me for a second week to read

Artworks in this book
are wonderful— inspiring
as the poems in it.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 10:11-10:18 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Johann Sebastian Bach,
Orchestral Suite #3 in D major, BWV 1068 (1731)
(Listen), (CD) YouTube

Waking up to Bach's
music— may it inspire me
to complete the work. Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 12:00-1:37 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill Krause Center
"Lightness in Dante Purgatorio Canto 9"
Reason for choosing poem on "lightness"

Lucia is anagram for
aculia— eagle in
flight seeing sunlight.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 20, Room 21B
Kay Ryan's Poetry Workshop: Discussed
A.E. Housman's "Name & Nature of Poetry"

More physical than
intellectual— poetry
is hard to define. Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 7:00-8:25 pm
Stanford University, Hewlett Center, Room 200
Dr. Ard Louis, Oxford University
"Can Science Explain Everything?"

Science cannot answer
riddles of existence
or our task in this world.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 12:36-12:42 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Mozart's 254th birthday,
Serenade #10 in B-Flat, K. 361 "Gran Partita"
(1781), Listen, CD, YouTube, (Film Video)
In 1984 film "Amadeus", Salleri sighs—

This was not some monkey's work—
It seems I was hearing
the voice of God. Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 12:50-1:00 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Carl Maria von Weber,
Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 (1811),
(Listen), CD, YouTube
Music played in Greta Garbo's "Camille"

Baron plays this waltz
while Camille dares not
answer her lover's doorbell.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 2:45-5:12 pm
Los Altos Hills, Foothill Krause Center
"Lightness in Dante Purgatorio Canto 9"
"Lightness" in "Purgatorio 9.61-63"

Lucia sets Dante down—
her eyes showed the entryway
then she took her leave. Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 7:00-10:00 pm
Stanford University, Cummings Art Library
Read Anthony K. Cassell's "Santa Lucia as Patroness of Sight: Hagiography, Iconography, & Dante" (1991)

Lucia was Dante's
Patroness Saint of sight
so he saw paradise.

Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:17-12:21 pm
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on Greensleeves (1934)
(Listen) CD, YouTube

Fantasia on Greensleeves—
romantic music for
lovers out walking. Thursday, January 28, 2010, 3:15-6:05 pm
Stanford University, Building 260, Room 11
Prof. Dupuy's seminar "The Problem of Evil"—
Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" & 9/11

Underground man cares
too much what others think
of him— that's amour-propre.

Friday, January 29, 2010, 10:27-10:42 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Ludwig van Beethoven,
Symphony #3 in Eb, Op. 55 "Eroica" (1803)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Waking to Beethoven's
Eroica Symphony
inspires me to work. Friday, January 29, 2010, 11:37-11:46 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Gordon Hunt plays
Domenico Zipoli, Elevazione "Ascension" (1716)
(Listen) CD, YouTube

Uplifting music—
Elevazione by
monk from Paraguay.

Friday, January 29, 2010, 3:00-5:00 pm
San Francisco, 55 Music Concourse Drive,
Golden Gate Park, California Academy of Sciences
Deborah takes me there for architectural studies

Aquarium, Rain Forest,
Planetarium— sea
to land to stars. Friday, January 29, 2010, 5:30-8:30 pm
San Francisco, Golden Gate Park
De Young Museum: American & African art,
Egyptian music, and Amish Abstraction Quilts

Amish quilts with optical
illusion effects
look like mandalas.

Saturday, January 30, 2010, 10:27-10:42 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Jean Paul Egide Martini
Plaisir d'amour "The Joys of Love" (1775)
Listen, CD, (YouTube), Elvis song

Pleasure of love lasts
only a moment—
Pain of love lasts a lifetime. Saturday, January 30, 2010, 1:00-2:15 pm
Stanford University, Building 200, Room 002
Christian Luczanits, Stanford Buddhist Studies
"Tibetan Buddhist Mandala & Its Evolution" (I)

Mandala means circle
and surrounding that aids
monks to meditate.

Saturday, January 30, 2010, 2:15-2:35 pm (Break)
Stanford University, Went outside Bldg 200 after
Luczanits showed mandalas with deities around
the Buddha. During break, Sun whispered to me—

Sun God in center circle
with planet deities
moving around it. Saturday, January 30, 2010, 2:35-3:35 pm
Stanford University, Building 200, Room 002
Christian Luczanits, Stanford Buddhist Studies
"Tibetan Buddhist Mandala & Its Evolution" (II)

Monks made sand mandala
in Atlanta, then poured
it into the stream.

Saturday, January 30, 2010, 8:32 pm
Mountain View, Showers Drive & Latham Street
Waiting for Bus #35 and seeing the Full Moon or
Wolf Moon (Jan. 30, 2010, 6:18 Greenwich Time)

O Wolf Moon howling
in the night sky, storm now gone—
you shine so brightly! Sunday, January 31, 2010, 10:55-10:58 am
KDFC 102.1 FM: Aram Khachaturian,
Masquerade: Romance (1944)
Listen, CD, YouTube

Be true to yourself!
Masquerade is amour-propre—
a cause of evil.

Sunday, January 31, 2010, 1:30-2:30 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me grocery
shopping at CVS (Vlasic Pickles Spears)
and Safeway (2580 California Street)

Swiss cheese, Doritos chips,
fish fillets, tartar sauce,
green grapes, and skim milk. Sunday, January 31, 2010, 8:00-10:10 pm
Stanford Flicks at Cubberley Auditorium:
George Tillman, Jr. directs "Notorious" (2009) with
Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Antonique Smith,
Derek Luke, Naturi Naughton, & Anthony Mackie

From cracker dealer to rapper,
Christopher Wallace became
a hip-hop star.